Wife for Hire

Chapter 16

(Karmen) 

    After I was done visiting my mom, I stopped by the diner to see Joe and Maxine. Maxine had been telling me about her son and Joe was telling me about this fine man that he was interested in that had become a regular. 
    “I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve seen him before though.” He said to me. I shrugged. 
    “Maybe it was like deja vu?” I said taking a bite of the burger he’d brought me. Both him and Maxine were sitting in the booth across from me, stealing my fries. 
    “Anyway, how are things with you and Jason?” Maxine asked, dipping a fry in ketchup and tossing it in her mouth. I thought back to how we had been acting the past couple of days and smiled. 
    “Pretty good actually.” I said, they shared a look with each other and then looked at me. I looked back at them confused. 
    “What?” I asked. They looked at each other again, shook their heads and sighed. What was up with them and why were they acting so weird. 
    “You’re falling for him, ain’t you?” Joe said. I shook my head and laughed. There was no way that I was falling for him. Even though I was getting used to the warm, sweet Jason, I knew cold Jason would be back any day now. I knew with the way that we were now, it was just a friendship kind of thing. 
    “No way, we’re just friends. Besides, I’m sure he’s only being nice to me because of mom.” They shared another look and then stared at me as if I was dumb. 
    “Girl you introduced him to auntie?” I nodded looking between the two of them. They looked at each other again and I was finally getting fed up. 
    “Stop doing that! What’s wrong? Why do y’all keep looking at each other like that?” I asked. They sighed again before Maxine finally spoke up. 
    “Karma, it’s just that... you’ve never told any of the people you dated about your mom. Maybe except Eric, but he kind of found out on his own and things continued from there. Even then though, you broke up with him not long after he found out.” I nodded, that was true. I had never really told anyone about my mom. If they weren’t a close friend or family, there was no reason for them to know. I was tired of everyone giving me those pitying looks. They only started to care because they didn’t want to seem like bad people. 
    “Yeah well, my mom was dying to meet him anyway.” I said with a shrug and looked out the window to the parking lot. It was true, I just wanted my mom to meet him. I had planned on lying to her anyway, but I couldn’t, not that she would let me anyway. I thought back to when I had asked him to go with me. Even when we showed up at the hospital he didn’t push or ask any questions, he just waited patiently for me to explain and when I did he just listened. He didn’t look at me or my mom with pity, he just agreed that he would come and visit her everyday with me and whatever they had talked about in that room alone, he wasn’t spilling anything at all. 
    “Karma, just be careful. You know y’all are only supposed to be together for a year and it’s already been what? 3-4 months? Be careful alright? I don’t need you getting hurt.” I looked at Joe and saw the concern there in his eyes and it almost brought tears to my own. I could already feel my bottom lip poking out. 
    “Aww Joe! You really do love me!” I said running around to his side of the table, sitting in his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. Maxine laughed and Joe just kept trying to push me away. 
    “I’ll never be concerned about yo ass again.” He said, but I could tell he was fighting a smile. I kissed him on the cheek and stood to go back around to my side of the table. 
    “I love you too, Jojo.” I said. He rolled his eyes, but this time I could see a smile forming on his lips. 
    I sat and talked with them for a couple more hours before I left. I realized the movie started at 7 and it was already 5:45. I told them both goodbye and went out to my car before driving back to Jason’s. When I got there, it looked like Lucinda was gone and Jason wasn’t in the kitchen so I went upstairs to knock on his door. When he didn’t answer, I peeked inside to see him lying on the bed, asleep. I was about to close the door and leave, but he mumbled something causing me to walk further inside. 
    I tiptoed over to his bed and found myself kneeling beside it until I was eye level with him. He looked so peaceful when he slept, it didn’t even look like he could be an irritated person with how calm and innocent he looked. I thought back to our first couple of weeks together and smiled, I never would have thought that Jason and I would be as good of friends as we are now. I thought we would always be hot and cold, fighting and avoiding until our contract was up, but even now I knew that I would want to keep in contact with him when everything was said and done. 
    A piece of hair fell onto his face and reached over to push it out of the way. I sighed, I guess there would be no movie tonight. I carefully stood, trying not to lean on the bed and wake him and turned to leave. Before I could step away from the bed fully, there was a hand grabbing my arm. I jumped, but turned back to see if he was awake and found two hazel eyes staring back at me. 
    “How long were you awake?” I whispered. He sat up, my arm still in his hand and pulled me closer. 
    “Since you came stomping into my room.” If I was light skinned, my face would be a bright red. I tried to shake my arm out of his grasp, but he just grabbed my other hand to steady me, a laugh escaping his lips. 
    “I was not stomping, I was tiptoeing.” This time he was full on laughing and I could feel my cheeks burn even more. I tried to cover my face with my hands. I didn’t know I had been caught creeping. He pulled my hands away from my face. 
    “Karmen, it’s totally okay that you were checking me out in my sleep. I know I have such an angelic face, it can’t be helped.” I rolled my eyes and this time he did actually let me go. I tried to fight the disappointment. 
    “What time is it?” He asked through a yawn. I looked at my phone. 
    “6:20.” I said. Thinking back to how I had been caught ogling him. I shook my head, why did he have to sit there and pretend to be asleep like that? Didn’t he know that’s rude? 
    “I guess we should get going, huh?” I nodded and he stood again, stretching and yawning. 
    “If you’re tired, we can miss out on the movie.” He finished stretching and looked at me, before patting me on the head. 
    “If I was too tired to go, I would say so.” He said. I nodded and he grabbed my hand as we left his room and walked downstairs. We walked into the garage and he grabbed a set of keys from the lockbox before walking over to a royal blue Porsche. He pulled the door open for me and then walked over to the driver side and climbed in. He turned the car on and began backing out of the driveway. He didn’t play anything on the radio this time, we just rode in silence.